Days of the Turbins is a realistic historical play depicting the transition to the Soviet era. The moment of crisis is shown to be the time when a civilized bourgeois White family accepts the reality of defeat.
The meaning of the play was startling to its original audience in that it humanizes the defeated, for they had been caricatured as monsters in the decade during which the Bolsheviks consolidated their power. That Mikhail Bulgakov represented the reality of that time in Kiev so exactly and that he made these characters so thoroughly human and understandable allowed even long-term political opponents of the Whites to identify with the experience. The play continues to have more meaning for audiences in the former Soviet Union than for others because of its vivid representation of this deeply felt history.
Still, the play goes beyond history; it connects with people outside the former Soviet Union (when they know enough of that history to follow the action) with its images of gallantry in defeat, its appreciation for the complexity of human beings, and its commitment to the values of peace and civilized life. These themes are developed most fully in Bulgakov’s final masterwork, Master i Margarita (1966-1967; The Master and Margarita, 1967).
Alexei’s death in Days of the Turbins illustrates all three of these themes. Deeply disillusioned by the ignominious behavior of the leaders of the...
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